John Arne Riise’s Inexplicable Fall Leads To Shakhtar Goal (Video)

Roma’s John Arne Riise is still searching for answers as to why he couldn’t keep his footing during yesterday’s Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk.

With Roma trailing 40 minutes into the game, Riise found himself backed up in his own end with the ball at his feet. Attempting to deliver a long ball down the field, he began to backpedal, but lost his footing before watching a Shakhtar player pick up the loose ball and deliver it across to Luiz Adriano for the goal, which put Shakhtar ahead by a score of 3-1. Roma would score one more to make it 3-2, but they will have their work cut out for them when they travel to Ukraine for the second leg of their Round of 16 match-up in a few weeks.

As for Riise, he was noticeably distressed about the goal following the game as he tried to explain what took place on that third Shakhtar goal:

“I know that the fans are against me now and I feel terrible about this. That is football, but this was truly a negative match for me.

“I was going to hit the ball long, but then I thought about it a moment more and lost my balance. I really don’t know how I did it. I’ve had a similar experience with an own goal in the semi-final for Liverpool. I feel just sick, even physically.

“I hope the supporters can understand that I always give my all. I apologise to them. I went off at half-time because I made a mistake.” [Football Italia]

This takes me back to a valuable lesson I learned from one of my hockey coaches during my earlier playing days, who said “Whenever you take a terrible shot that misses the net by a mile, be sure to deflect the blame from yourself by looking at your stick blade.” Perhaps Riise could have used similar advice and blamed his fall on poor field conditions, or new shoes.